Finland was voted number one country in the world in a Newsweek poll in August and now thanks to a new biogas partnership the little-known Baltic country is poised to become a leading bioenergy producer....

With the North Sea linking it to mainland Europe, and the expanse of the Atlantic Sea linking it to the Americas, the UK is ideally positioned on the global biomass distribution map. From biomass power,...

Pulp and paper companies, which are closing mills as the industry consolidates, are creating opportunities for biofuel, biomass-to-power and pellet producers trying to commercialise their technologies....

‘The problem with bioenergy is not that it is new. It has been around forever so its significance is very underestimated.’ That is the view of one Brussels-based renewable energy expert, who despairs...

Research into the short rotation tree crops willow and poplar has been going for more than 20 years, looking at the agronomy, handling, drying and how to use and convert the wood chips most effectively....

International trade of both solid bioenergy commodities has grown rapidly over the past few years. The most prominent example is wood pellets: in 2008 roughly 11.8 million tonnes were consumed worldwide...

Europe has vigorously promoted biomass as an alternative fuel but does not have sufficient sources of woody biomass. As a contrast, Canada has a tremendous amount of woody biomass. For decades residual...

With the escalation of landfill tax, a growing emphasis on recycling and recovery, new government incentives to encourage renewable energy from waste, and innovative new technologies coming on stream,...

Referred to by some as the fourth energy source, biomass undoubtedly has the potential to contribute towards reducing the world’s dependency on fossil fuels. However not all types of organic material...

Pyrolysis is the production of gases, liquids, and char (solid residue) by thermal decomposition of an organic compound in the absence of oxygen. The liquid produced from pyrolysis of biomass used to be...

The hunter has spent most of the summer by the lakes, but now autumn’s chill is advancing. After a long day of fi shing he gathers some wood for the evening fi re. He sets aside his fi sh, a good catch,...

Anaerobic digestion is used to treat a number of different waste streams including municipal solid wastes, sewage sludge and farm waste matter. During the breakdown of these materials two by-products are...

Although efficient in dealing with waste, there is no escaping the fact that landfill sites are an eyesore. In 2006 landfills were the second-largest source of manmade methane, producing over 22% of the...

In 2009 global production of wood pellets reached around 10-11 million tonnes, with players such as Denmark-based pellet mill provider Andritz Feed & Biofuel seeing a growth rate in excess of 20% a year....

Money does not grow on trees, but there is money to be made from trees. However in today’s fragile economy even a booming industry like bioenergy needs to watch the pennies. Mechanical faults, loss of...